Idol Headlines for 1/18/13 – The Evening Edition

Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Carly Rae Jepsen and more are featured on the 2013 Grammy Nominees album. More information HERE.

Alicia Keys to sing National Anthem at Super Bowl – Alicia Keys will sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl this year, according to a press release. This will be the Grammy winner’s first time performing the Super Bowl honor, although she has twice before performed during the pre-show. – Read more at Entertainment Weekly

Adam Lambert will be honored by the We Are Family Foundation on Thursday January 31 with a concwert featuring Adam, Nile Rogers & CHIC, Taylor Dayne and more. The gala will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom at 8:15 pm. For more information and Tickets click this link.

Jennifer Hudson added to inaugural entertainment lineup – Jennifer Hudson has been added to the entertainment lineup at one of the two inaugural balls, joining other powerhouse performers such as Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder and the cast of Glee. – Read more at USA Today

Sundance: Jennifer Hudson ‘terrified’ of taking on addict role – Jennifer Hudson stepped out of her comfort zone in George Tillman Jr.’s new drama “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” ditching the glitz and glamour of “Dreamgirls” for a life of substance abuse. “I loved the script, it is so real and honest and different from anything I have ever done. It drew me in, and instantly I was terrified,” Hudson told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column at the film’s Hennessy-sponsored post premiere party in Park City on Thursday night. “I was terrified of doing something so different from myself. Normally when I do a project there is some kind of connection, something I can relate too, but with her being an addict there was just nothing.” – Read more at FOX News

New ‘American Idol’ Judges: Jennifer Hudson Weighs In! – “It’s television, and ‘Idol’ is very good at what the machine does,” she told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival while promoting her film “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete.” And for anyone wondering what an OG idol like Hudson thinks about the latest judging panel, the season-three contestant said she still kind of misses the classic combo of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul. “I haven’t really watched this season. Although I am in the wings, and I always try to peek in and check it out,” she continued. “I am curious to see the judges on the show, from Mariah to Nicki, and I’m not too familiar with anyone else, but I think the public is so used to seeing the faces of Simon, Paula and Randy. it’s kind of hard to adjust to new characters. So whatever they’re doing, it’s probably a good thing.” – Read more at MTV.com

Sundance 2013: Jennifer Hudson as a drug addict mom in ‘The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete’ — EXCLUSIVE CLIP – The movie, directed by George Tillman, Jr. (Soul Food), follows two boys — sad-eyed, feisty, and ambitious 14-year-old Mister (breakout Skylan Brooks) and small, innocent 9-year-old Pete (Ethan Dizon) — abandoned by their moms and surviving within the gritty world of the Brooklyn projects. They fend for themselves, searching for food and avoiding the police. Check out an exclusive clip from the movie, below, with an intro by Hudson, Keys, Brooks, and Tillman, Jr. in our very own Sundance EW video suite. Future Oscar buzz may kick in swiftly for Brooks and Oscar-winner Hudson, who plays against type as Mister’s heavily abusive, tattooed, prostitute drug addict mom. – Read more at Entertainment Weekly

Kelly Clarkson has ‘a lot of people helping’ to plan wedding – “I keep running into fans, and they’re like, ‘Please stay feisty.’ And I’m like, ‘You don’t get married and change.’ I still love empowering songs, and I still love a feisty, sassy message. I still love all of that stuff. But at the same time, it’s kind of exciting just to see what will come out of me that’s different, because I’ll be in a different place. I don’t know. Maybe it’ll suck, but maybe it’ll be awesome.” – Read more at Tennessean.com

Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted.I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!

Not sure if anyone mentioned, it seems Danny Gokey may be one of the guest artists at The Gift of Music fundraiser next Thursday in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium.

This is Danny’s first public appearance since August, maybe? Assuming baby Gokey doesn’t interfere, due any day.

Lee Greenwood and others were originally advertised, but tweets a day or so ago started to add Danny and J.D. Souther to the advertised line-up.

Incipit

That must be a relief for Kris – the brace looks much easier to maneuver than that big cast was! Now, just refrain from bumping it…

Axxxel

Still playing Adam Lambert’s “Shady” on repeat… Would love to see Nile Rodgers and Adam together on stage doing that song during that gala night ! They already did it in the studio.. so…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6c3gILS1-Q

Axxxel

Still playing Adam Lambert’s “Shady” on repeat… Would love to see Nile Rodgers and Adam together on stage doing that song during that gala night ! They already did it in the studio.. so…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6c3gILS1-Q

justmefornow

Aww, this is sweet, I guess he saw Gabe’s audition after getting those tweets last night, lol.

James Durbin ?@DurbinRock
@AmericanIdol When do I get to duet Steeldragon with Gabe Brown??

Gabe Brown ?@IdolGabeBrown
@DurbinRock @americanidol You name the time and the place!

fuzzywuzzy

Lee Dewyze. Phillip Phillips.

girlygirltoo

This is cool…Tom Petty retweeted the video of Kris covering Breakdown :)

It’s right around now. Maybe Jan. 20th according to a tweet from his wife Leyicet a few weeks ago? Something like that.

Understandably, they both seem quite anxious to see baby Gokey make his appearance lol.

Nadine_Bitch

Shady is one song I like to hear on recording than live. But I gotta share to you my ONLY favorite Shady live performance. It’s vocally PERFECT! and it was done in the freaking early morning. I remember the DJ’s were gushing about it after his performance.

“Gabe Brown ?@IdolGabeBrown@DurbinRock @americanidol You name the time and the place!”

Are we sure AI & American tv could handle it? There’s a few hard rock James’ samples around & he does very well. This guy seems like he would “one-up” on James & it might not be pretty! Album promo, James, AI–hoping that happens.

Valarie

Gabe Brown is good, but ‘fat boy sings old school rock’ is being done better by Blackstone Cherry, imo.

justmefornow

I think he’s just ok as well. But no one has blown me away yet in auditions, granted just 2 shows in, he’s probably the only one I’ve liked so far.
Gabe’s too shouty for me. He doesn’t has the range of James, so he has to shout for the high notes that James hits with ease.
I hope there’s more rockers we haven’t seen yet this season, but James has set the bar high for me. I doubt anyone this season will be that good. We’ll see.

Nice for Kris to receive that feedback. I’m more impressed with Kris all the time. He is so relaxed and natural on stage – he is witty and funny. And he is sounding good.

roarpen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

I do like this! Maybe he should always sing it early in the morning. This felt authentic to me for the first time. When he gets out of his own way and let’s the music be front and center, his musicality comes through and the music shines. I hope to see more like this.

milwlovesadam

Nadine, what do you think of this Shady? I’m hoping for a re-vissit of this or your fave for when he sings with Nile. However, it may get really fun-kay up there!!

I love that version of Shady, but I like the regular concert versions of Shady more. Love when Adam struts his stuff and puts on a full show! It’s so cool that he can do both though, not everyone can. I also admire him being able to see him sing so flawlessly in the early morning, his performance at radio shows were great! I’ve seen some early morning singing from some, and well….no. His warmup routines must be very effective :)

bridgette12

This is certainly one of my favorite performances by him. The vocals were great, but he looked fantastic too.

milwlovesadam

Gotta say I’m enjoying Kris’ covers of Petty, and of Let It Be. Well done.

Good luck with that brace on his wrist. From personal experience, he could be wearing it for a while. It has a metal bar in it , best of luck with airport security!! Best wishes for good healing.

Nadine_Bitch

I know what you mean and to think his popular Idol performances were Mad world and Tracks of my tears where his vocals was upfront. But Adam is a performer and most of the time his performances become OTT but that’s just what he is. And as a fan, that’s what I like about him. He could give you a haunting ballad sitting on a stool if he wishes to or sings funky/dancey/electronic stuff and working the stage so effortlessly or rock his butt off jumping/lying on the floor if he’s in the mood. But one thing for sure, he’s never boring:)

I especially loved that Shady performance:
1. Vocally great.
2. Adam looked like he just rolled off the bed.
3. He’s wearing a white shirt! Damn, a WHITE shirt!lol

getaway1

Lol, I guess Lee Dewyze is having the last laugh. He just landed a record deal with Vanguard when many had written him off. And Phillip Phillips is laughing all the way to the bank with all well his CD has sold.

Whether someone is the better singer is all based on personal predjucies and preferences.

http://twitter.com/eilonwya10 Eilonwy

Voice finalist Nicholas David performs at the Minnesota parochial school that he once attended: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/187541011.html

(I’ll admit it took me a couple seconds to remember who this is, but I was distracted by news articles about chocolate fashion and burglars using saunas.)

Nadine_Bitch

I keep on repeating the video because I got distracted by his little ‘dance’.lol
It’s a great one… it could be my second fave Shady performance. The vocals were perfect(well, it’s not new anyway) and it was in the evening!lol

But c’mon that Radio gig is the best… he’s in a white shirt!lol

Looking forward for the Nile collab on the 31st:)

fuzzywuzzy

“Whether someone is the better singer is all subjective – based on personal preferences and biases.”

It’s not entirely subjective, since some aspects of singing are objective and can be measured scientifically (e.g. pitch). I admit that I need to have singers sing on key in order to consider them as good singers (but obviously, all singers who sing on key aren’t necessarily good singers). That’s my own personal “bias”. lol

curly_yenta

I totally agree. In fact, I find technically perfect singers rather uninspiring and drab – if they sing in a straight-forward manner. What matters to me how the singer emotes and interprets the lyrics and if I’m feeling the ‘vibe’.

bridgette12

For me, it’s kind of hard to feel the “vibe”, when your hearing someone who can’t stay in key or are off pitch most of the time. I guess if your band play loud enough, they can drown out the vocals.

girlygirltoo

There are a lot of musicians who are very very famous who aren’t not anywhere close to being great singers in terms of technique, big range or whatever (off the top of my head, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen) so I’m not sure why anyone these days needs to be technically perfect or have a big range. I’d prefer that they can stay on pitch and stay away from auto tune, but I care much more about nuance, emotion and originality over whether the voice is technically perfect or if the artist has a big range.

Just my personal preference, of course. YMMV

Axxxel

Yeah, a white T-shirt..so mundane for a diva LOL !

Axxxel

Those not-so-great singers are great storytellers.. unfortunately with my limited english knowledge, some parts of the story is lost in translation, so I just listen to the voice of the singers…and it does help if they are great vocalists or stay on pitch.

curly_yenta

Well stated! Exactly how I feel about music and musicians.

Axxxel

the white shirt ? I guess he was not able to get his usual glam T-shirts from the laundry in time LOL

curly_yenta

I’m not talking about those who are tone deaf. I’m talking about emoting a song rather than those who are able to sing a perfect scale with no background in the delivery.

getaway1

In the real world, I seriously doubt most consumers are
even aware if someone wasn’t always pitch perfect, etc. That’s Idol land. It’s
more about being entertained, liking a song, relating to a performer. And it is those people that are paying money to go see a show and buy a record
that holds the power in who keeps a record contract and who is dropped.

lovetheusa1776

Beautiful performance by Kris – see him live, folks

girlygirltoo

Just saw Pia sing the national anthem at the L.A. Kings’ season opener on NBC. They introduced her as “American Idol finalist and international recording artist”.

Don’t know if she got one of those championship rings they handed out to all of the players, though

ANNIEBA

Oh man, thanks for posting that performance of Shady. That was so sexy and I loved what he was wearing. Shady is such a perfect song.

fuzzywuzzy

“In the real world, I seriously doubt most consumers are even aware or care if someone wasn’t always pitch perfect, etc.”

Singing live to millions of people is about as “real” as it gets. lol At no point did I ever say that singers have to be technically “perfect” or have “perfect pitch”, and it’s obvious (as I’ve said many times), that just because a person can sing on key and not be “pitchy” does NOT make them a good singer. (all bears are animals, but not all animals are bears, right?).

There’s obviously a “sliding scale” of tolerance for degree and frequency of pitchiness and off key singing, as is evident from those people who don’t mind/like people who make me cringe when they hit a bad note. That’s fine for them, but hardly going to be a universal, or even a majority opinion when it comes to musicianship.

“And it is those consumers that are paying money to go see a show and buying a record that holds the power in who keeps a record contract and who is dropped.”

You are talking about apples vs. oranges. As we all know, there are lots of weak singers who are hugely commercially successful, but that still doesn’t make them good singers. lol

http://twitter.com/jlmontana9 Jim

Pia’s my definition of a classy singer. Technically great and beautiful to watch as she expresses the melody and lyrics without affected emoting. Check out her renditions with Jared Lee of “Time After Time” and “Fix You”. If you’re not moved, you need a transplant.

jlynn1205

I agree because I’m a fan of both people like Adam Lambert and Jessie J, people with big technically good voices but still convey emotion in their voices as well as Damien Rice and Jason Mraz who are vocally limited but whose lyrics and tone move me. There is more than just the voice and it’s important to marry the right voice with the right material. For example on idol I though Phil was not capable of carrying a tune and he drove me crazy. I hated that he was winning while sucking. I could not see the talent. However now that he’s recorded music suited to his voice I like a lot of it and can see to a certain degree what people liked about him. I realized that on idol what Phil was incapable of was arranging a tune to suit his voice where someone like Kris who was another contestant who didn’t have a huge voice was an expert at.

jlynn1205

I love that freakin song. My fav.

jlynn1205

Can you tell me where I could get an updated list of his tour dates? I would love to see him live, but I’m not sure if he’s coming around me.

http://profile.yahoo.com/HWRPW434YQTROZ3J5E4BSLWEYM H.A.

Mark LaDuke: Road To Hollywood Interviews – AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 12
Favorite Idol Adam Lambert. He wants to be his backup singer.lol